Well, it only took about five years and three sessions of Congress to finally pass this thing in both the House and the Senate. The Senate passed their version of the bill (S. 30) on February 23rd and the House passed their version of the bill (H.R. 1258) on April 14th. All that remains now is for any differences in the two bills to be reconciled and sent to the President for a signature.
Voice of VOIPSA
Collective thoughts and musings on the state of VoIP security today.
I don’t believe this is yet law.
Spoofcard’d blog has an opinion:
http://www.spoofcard.com/blog/
As does Huffington post:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/04/14/house-passes-ban-on-calle_n_537870.html
There are very substantial differences between the Senate and House bills. The Senate bill is pretty much useless–it purports to prohibit cid spoofing for fraudulent purposes–which is conduct that is already illegal. This law is child’s play to circumvent. And of course it is unfunded….
The House version gives the FCC jurisdiction to deal with the problem, which potentially has substantial value. The FCC currently requires carriers to transmit caller ID and other CLASS info from “carrier” to carrier. The bill extends this to “interconnected VoIP.” If the FCC has jurisdiction now to not just require transmission of data from which CLASS services are built, but can also require that carriers take reasonable steps to transmit accurate information (as 99 percent already do) then perhaps this current wave of crime against grandparents in their kitchen can be stopped.
A downside is that there are privacy concerns with any traffic authentication scheme– the least invasive way to do this may be if the FCC requirements are built into interconnection agreements and traffic termination agreements–so that certificated LECs police themselves.
Voipsa could be involved inthis: On May 13, the Minnesota PUC is scheduled to take action on caller ID spoofing. The staff briefing papers are here:
https://www.edockets.state.mn.us/EFiling/edockets/searchDocuments.do?method=showPoup&documentId={7E05FDD8-92AD-4D95-8E58-4710E0055B6A}&documentTitle=20105-50026-01
comments from public safety: https://www.edockets.state.mn.us/EFiling/edockets/searchDocuments.do?method=showPoup&documentId={11C8A363-63AA-4EF6-8977-DC07A36C36E4}&documentTitle=20104-48678-01
the state attorney general: https://www.edockets.state.mn.us/EFiling/edockets/searchDocuments.do?method=showPoup&documentId={27E3E3B2-9568-4A79-80F7-CB05D5B6CBCF}&documentTitle=20102-46891-02
the docket is 08-1391, and it can be searched for and pulled up here: https://www.edockets.state.mn.us/EFiling/edockets/searchDocuments.do?method=showeDocketsSearch&searchType=new